In 2013, the number of newly added robots in my country reached 37,000, making it the largest increase in the number of industrial robots in the world that year. In 2014, that number had risen to about 67,800 units, of which more than 10,000 were domestically produced. This marks that my country has become the world's largest producer of industrial robots.
The data shows that in 2000, China imported only 380 robots. By 2013, it had imported 37,000 robots, an increase of two orders of magnitude in 13 years. There are more than 40 industrial robot parks in various places. The number of robot companies exceeded 4,000. Globally, SIASUN ranks among the top three in the world, second only to ABB and FANUC in the robotics industry. Chinese robot companies basically have a certain degree of international competitiveness. Luo Baihui, a research expert on the global robot industry, pointed out that although my country has a larger robot market, my country's self-produced products only account for part of the total sales, and the core components of these products also depend on foreign countries. The application volume of our industrial robots is also far lower than that of developed countries.
Robots have grown up. Robots are versatile and versatile automation equipment that has been used in manufacturing for decades. In the past, it was like a "Miss Jiao", with a lot of money and not many jobs. With the advancement of technology, the performance of robots has been significantly improved, and they are more and more often seen in high{{0}}precision fields and dangerous environments. Adapting to the general trend of intelligence and transformation to the Internet, robots, as the next technological integration that will change the world, will set off a new industrial revolution and become the protagonist of the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry. Those industries or costs that have a technological advantage will drop significantly, and their competitiveness will leap to a new level. "By 2025, the global robot market can form a large market of several trillion US dollars." Luo Baihui said that follow-up favorable policies (Made in China 2025, the 13th Five-Year Plan for Robots, etc.) are expected to continue to be introduced, and "Internet manufacturing" will boost the industry's prosperity. Robotic automation is the most important tool to realize the Chinese version of Industry 4.0, and will usher in huge development opportunities in the later stage. Among the A-share robot concept stocks, robots, Xinshida, Inovance Technology, etc., are worthy of focus in the later stage.
Thanks to the technological innovations in recent years, such as the continuous development of intelligent core products such as industrial computers (industrial control computers), the performance of robots has been greatly improved, and they have become more ingenious and more affordable. The new generation of robots can realize automatic control and guide the mechanical arm with a camera, which has achieved gratifying changes in the level of intelligence and refinement.
Compared with humans, robots have advantages at a glance:
First, the robot has high efficiency, which can effectively reduce production costs. Robots can reduce labor costs by 33 percent in South Korea, 25 percent in Japan, and 22 percent in the U.S., changing a long-standing practice of global factories migrating for cheap labor.
The second is to achieve refined skills and standardized operations that are difficult to achieve by humans, improve the accuracy of manufacturing and assembly, and produce high value-added products. When the product needs to be updated, reprogramming the robot is much faster and more efficient than training the personnel. For the production field of fast-changing products such as smartphones, robots are urgently needed.
The third is to be able to engage in dangerous and hazardous work, reaching a situation that is beyond the reach of ordinary people.
The disadvantage of robots is that, after all, they are machines, not people. In the field of personalized and family-friendly services, no matter how advanced a robot is, it is difficult to change its machine nature.
The field of use of robots is mainly limited to factories, where the environment is controlled, reducing the risk of robots coming into contact with people and the need to perceive the world around them. Robot application is a self-contained system, which needs to change traditional concepts and management methods, and has a fairly high level of engineering technology. The use of robots varies by geography and industry, depending on many factors, including wage costs and labor regulations.
Today, about 85 percent of jobs in the manufacturing sector where products such as automobiles and electrical and electronic products have been automated can be performed by robots. Industries such as chemicals and metals will also increasingly use the most innovative and flexible robots. At present, only 10 percent of automatable jobs have been automated, and there is considerable room for development. According to the analysis data of Luo Baihui, a global robot industry research expert, in 2014, the sales volume of industrial robots was 250,000 units, an annual increase of nearly 30 percent .
Robot manufacturing itself is a big industry, and the development direction will reflect "three changes":
One is higher IQ. There is a huge gap between the intelligence of robots and the human brain. Assuming that the human brain is a computer, it can execute 38 gigabits of commands per second, while the world's most powerful computer, Deep Blue, can only execute 0.02 percent of this number. The intelligent level of robots needs to be improved, and the fuzzy processing ability must also have a qualitative leap. It has a certain "emotional intelligence" and is more empathetic.
The second is better sensitivity. The "hand" is the shortcoming of the robot. The human hand has amazing precision, and there are more than 10,000 "sensors" in it, which is beyond the reach of the robot. The future direction is to simulate the biological nervous system and continue to improve the robot sensor and grasping system to make the robot more dexterous.
Third, the price is cheaper. Industrial robot prices are currently down to around 130,000. The cost structure is roughly 22 percent for the body, 25 percent for the servo system, 38 percent for the reducer, 10 percent for the control system and 5 percent for the other. In the future, reducing the cost of the reducer and servo system is the key.
Robots have a huge space for future development in China. China's manufacturing industry is facing new challenges of transitioning to high-end and participating in the international division of labor. In addition, the demographic dividend is decreasing year by year and productivity costs are rising. It is an inevitable trend to widely use robots in high-precision fields and dangerous jobs. Luo Baihui predicts that by 2016, the number of robots in my country will exceed 160,000, making it the largest market in the world. At present, 70 percent of robots in my country are produced by foreign manufacturers, and reducers and servo motors are basically imported. The prices remain high, and there is a huge space for robot innovation and application.
In Luo Baihui's view, robots have advantages that are incomparable to ordinary people in the sophisticated and advanced fields of refinement and standardization. In the era of rising global labor costs, robots are bound to show their talents in many industries. Of course, no matter how superior a robot is, it is a machine made by humans after all. The correct attitude is to foster strengths and circumvent weaknesses to benefit mankind.
